Bear Spotted in West Fort Collins Neighborhood

Living close to the foothills, it's pretty normal to see deer and fox roaming in the area, but on Wednesday morning, a neighborhood off of Elizabeth and Overland had a much bigger, and also hairier visitor wandering around its parts.

Around 10:15 a.m., I noticed a few Colorado Parks and Wildlife rangers standing in the wooded area behind my apartment. I figured they had probably found a snake or something and were just working on getting it out, but after about twenty minutes had gone by and they still hadn't moved, I decided to take the dog out to see what was going on. On the way outside, my neighbor asked me if "he was still down there?" Apparently, a black bear had been hanging out in the trees and also found a nice little grove of apples and berries down in the drainage ditch to munch on. The rangers, who believed the bear to have been living in the area for a couple years now, were attempting to get it to go underneath a little bridge and back towards the foothills without having to cross traffic on Overland, and also without having to tranquilize it. After monitoring it for some time in one spot, the bear then decided to head due east instead and take a little stroll further down the ditch path. The rangers followed it from a distance, as other onlookers stood just feet away watching from their back porches. Eventually, the bear wandered out of eyesight, and the rangers said that they were just going to leave it be. I've always wanted to see a bear, but I never thought my first time would be right in my own backyard!